


Cyberphobia

by Polyhexian



Series: Excerpts from an Electronic Empire [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, M/M, POV Third Person, Sci-Fi, Sticky Sexual Interfacing, Xenophilia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-18 12:48:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28992456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polyhexian/pseuds/Polyhexian
Summary: Thrush is a security drone living on the border between mech and human controlled territory, in charge of network security. He's been nursing a furtive rivalry with an enemy hacker on the other side for a long time now, but something's about to change.
Relationships: Evan/Thrush
Series: Excerpts from an Electronic Empire [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2126772
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	Cyberphobia

Thrush stretched out his feet as he cut his engines and landed with a thump on the city wall, realigning his wings and shaking the frost off his ailerons. 

"You know," said Zephyr, "You really should repaint white. You stick out like a sore thumb."

Thrush rolled his optic at her. She was the same model as he was, a Gargoyle VI class drone, designed for surveillance. Zephyr was all white and pale grey, reflecting the snow covered landscape, with soft blue biolights, stabilizing wings and a miniature jet engine on her back, a whip-thin tail for quick mid-air turns and a CCTV camera shaped-head, a single glittering optic in the center below the aperture. Outside of their paint jobs, they were mostly identical.

"I'm not _trying_ to be stealthy," he reminded her, "Unlike you, I'm not _itching_ to surprise someone and get in a fight."

"If they're crawling over the walls then they started it!" Zephyr scoffed, lashing her tail, "I'm just saying that black and grey is boring _and_ poor camouflage. If you don't care about being spotted, why not at least paint some flames on there or something like Riot?" 

"I'll see you at shift change, Zephyr," Thrush said as politely as he could, and then waited until she sighed and climbed up onto the battlement and her engines kicked on, carrying her into the sky. He flipped his wings back open to glide down the opposite side and back into the town limits.

Watching the cresting sun as dawn broke over Galena, Thrush knew he should stop by the refinery and refuel, but he'd flown a hundred mile circuit the previous evening and as much as he was wont for fuel, he was more wont to go home and let his engine rest. 

Thrush fumbled with one of his storage components in his arm for his keys and was relieved when he finally got the front door of his house opened and shut again behind him, self-consciously fluttering his wings to remove any lingering ice. He tossed his keys on the side table and flicked on a light, beelining right for the nest he'd made in the living room, two couches pushed together and brimming with blankets and pillows. If there was anything humans had done right, it was in creating endless forms of indulgent comfort. 

Once he was fully bundled into his nest and the lingering heat of his engine was trapped inside with him, Thrush opened his HUD and accessed the security network he managed for the town's defenses. Technically they were a border town, the Yukon river separating Mechae controlled territory from human, but they were so far into strategic irrelevance it hardly mattered. The only people they seemed to have regular issues with was the human settlement on the other side of the river, Ruby, where most of the humans had relocated rather than stay in Mechae controlled territory. Still, Galena's roughly six hundred residents were still one-tenth human. Hardly an exclusion zone. 

His first two firewalls had been breached, but the hacker had gotten no further than that. Thrush skimmed the network database until he found a string of encrypted characters and copied them. He reset the firewalls and then decrypted the character string to find a link he followed in his browser.

A game of chess. Clearly his adversary was tired of losing at Go. 

He'd already made the first move and Thrush studied it thoughtfully, and then moved a pawn one space and waited. It was less than a minute before the other player responded, moving another pawn. 

Thrush languidly let him try to set up his play. He was in no rush. The security officer in Ruby, screen name _Cyberphobia_ had never beaten him at a game of strategy, but it was unfair to pit a human brain against a computer. 

Well. Except for poker. He'd never beaten the human at poker.

Thrush spent most of that morning at home fussing over their game. His house had been built long before the regime change, by human hands. Most of the other mecha thought him strange for doing little to alter his accommodations, since most tended to dislike human habitation standards, but Thrush had always much preferred them. He liked blankets, and chairs, and analogue televisions and coffee tables with _books_ on them. It wasn't much of a mystery why he was a bit of a loner, the head of security who easily had the most technically demanding job in town and the least technologically impressive lifestyle. 

He moved his queen into checkmate as the sun was fully overhead and watched the other player's cursor hover stubbornly near his pieces, refusing to admit defeat without checking and rechecking the board. Without a word, Cyberphobia logged off, and Thrush huffed laughter through his vocalizer, shutting the application down. He was ready to slip into recharge before his next shift, but he knew he needed to refuel before he did, and reluctantly disengaged from his nest. 

Daytime seemed to bring people from their homes, as late as it was under the winter Yukon sun. He passed a human neighbor up early to care for his sled dogs who stopped and waved at him.

"You're up late," the man, Denny, commented, "Have you refueled yet?"

"No," Thrush admitted, "Have you eaten yet?"

"No," Denny laughed, "Fair enough. You gotta come by and see the dogs again sometime. You know they love you."

"They like that I'm _warm_ ," Thrush scoffed, "But if that offer for sledding lessons is still open I wouldn't turn it down." 

"Next Saturday, then?" 

"Sounds like a plan!" Thrush waved back as they parted ways and he went to finally fill his aching tank.

The refinery was empty other than Copper, the old mech in charge, and Foxtrot, his apprentice. The younger mech seemed somewhat checked out, leaning back against the wall and staring at her phone, but Copper looked up from where he was watching his AM radio as if it were a television when he came in.

"Ah, Thrush," he rumbled, a sputtering old mobile unit with thick treads and steaming smokestacks, "You're up late."

"When was the last time you saw me early?" Thrush asked with a cheeky tilt of his head.

"When you had a night off," Copper rumbled pleasantly, "Foxtrot, dear, would you grab a hydrogen canister for me?"

Foxtrot flashed a peace sign and disappeared into the back while Copper scribbled down his withdrawal.

"Anything to worry about?" Copper asked, glancing up at him.

"I saw a moose," Thrush said dryly, "and a lot of snow."

"Terrifying," Copper nodded, "We do live in harrowing times." 

Foxtrot reemerged from the back and handed him a fuel canister, immediately returning to her phone. Thrush waved as he left to return home for a few hours of recharge. 

* * *

Cyberphobia had grown tired of Chess, apparently. He'd linked a different game this morning, some kind of first person shooter that Thrush wasn't familiar with. 

"Ready to eat digital lead, toaster?" a familiar voice asked as it crackled over the voice chat.

Thrush chuckled, burrowing deeper into his nest. "You know I don't eat. I'll have to leave that to you, fleshbag."

In-game doors snapped open, signaling the beginning of the match. Thrush assumed his rival was familiar with this game and this map and had been practicing, but Thrush had the unfair advantage of being able to download game data and quickly process it to learn to play before the first shot had even been fired.

He strafed behind cover and ducked his character, scanning the map.

"You're early today," Cyberphobia commented, "Don't you ever have anything better to do?"

"Don't you?" Thrush retorted, and turned to fire as he ran for a new line of cover in the direction of the payload. 

"Keeping you distracted is a big part of my job."

"Hm," hummed Thrush, "Keeping you distracted is just a hobby for me."

One of Thrush's computer-controlled teammate's took a headshot behind him and went down. He sprayed cover fire behind him as he serpentined his way to the flag, until a grenade threw his character to the ground.

"Don't think you're special," Cyberphobia purred, "I hack a _lot_ of security networks, not just yours."

"I'd like to see you get into one of my servers," Thrush scoffed, "You can't even break through a few measly firewalls." 

"Biding my time, tin can, biding my-" Cyberphobia suddenly cut himself off, his character going motionless. Thrush found this odd, since he was right beside the flag. He stood up and approached his character, wondering if he'd perhaps hit lag.

"I have to go," said Cyberphobia suddenly, and the game client shut down, throwing Thrush back into his HUD, confused. They hadn't finished their game. That wasn't like Cyberphobia at all- after years of back and forth he'd become somewhat predictable, and he simply didn't cut and run in the middle of a match. 

Thrush had a nagging feeling in the back of his processor something bad was about to happen, but he wasn't entirely sure what.

* * *

The network went unbreached over the next three days. Cyberphobia had never gone so long without challenging him before. Thrush's anxiety was ramping.

On the fourth day he was pulled from recharge in the middle of the day when all of his alarms sounded at once, alerting him to a full security breach. He scrambled to shut the hacker out and to reset all of his defenses, only to find very little had actually been tampered with. Frantically scanning through everything he'd put in place, he found it all untouched, until he stumbled onto a simple notepad file buried on his host server. The only thing in the file was a set of coordinates and a time. Midnight.

Thrush stared at it for ages, feeling his fuel tank flip and roil as he debated whether or not to go, whether he should finally admit what he had been doing to a superior, this game of cat and mouse with a human hacker he knew would earn him a demotion. Going alone would be dangerous, stupid even.

But Thrush had never refused a challenge from his rival before.

* * *

Thrush perched on the edge of the wall that encircled Galena, idly flapping his wings so they didn't rest long enough to frost. It was pitch black out, late into the thirteen hour Yukon night, waiting for Riot to come back from third shift patrol. He felt tense, tail lashing and hands gripping the battlement just a little too tightly to be casual. He was hardly paying attention when Riot swooped in behind him and landed with a thump.

"You look pretty checked out," Riot commented, another Gargoyle class security drone, but a slightly older model. Much bulkier than Thrush was. 

"Yeah, because you're late," Thrush said, trying and failing to play it cool.

"Maybe you're just early," Riot mumbled, annoyed, but Thrush ignored him, throwing himself over the side of the wall and catching the air to rise up to a comfortable flying height.

Thrush stared at the notepad file in his HUD, even after he was long out of connectivity range. A time and a location. What _for?_ Was he meeting _Cyberphobia?_ Someone else? Was it a trap? Some kind of game? What could he _want?_

The meeting place he'd been sent to was rocky, enclosed in trees and alongside a trucking road, the nameless kind. Thrush circled the area a few times, but the tree cover made being certain there was no trap laying in wait for him impossible. He'd have to go on blind faith.

Thrush knew he was being foolish even as he landed on the path dug into the snow between the trees, folding his wings back and lashing his tail. There was a pickup waiting for him, windows too thick with frost to see through. 

The door of the pickup opened a crack. "Are you Thrush?" asked a voice that Thrush had only heard filtered through low quality microphones.

"I am," Thrush said hesitantly, "Are you Cyberphobia?"

A beat passed and the car door opened, a young human man emerging, eyes darting around nervously as he approached. He didn't look anything like the person Thrush had imagined him to- he'd expected a tiny nerd type man with large glasses and neatly combed hair. Instead, he was surprisingly average looking, just under six feet with messy brown hair and at least a little muscle on him. He'd been right about the glasses, though.

"My name is Evan," the human told him, though he was keeping his voice low, "I'm going to get killed if anyone followed me out here."

Thrush lashed his tail as the anxiety flowed through him anew. "What's so important we had to meet like this?" he prompted.

"I know I give you a lot of shit," Evan said, still glancing behind him periodically, "But I don't hate mechs. I've known you longer than I've known most people, and- and I respect you. It's never mattered before, it's just some Hatfield and McCoy shit, you know?" He looked back at Thrush, his expression desperately earnest. "The military is in Ruby. They're planning a full assault on Galena."

"What?!" Thrush cried, taking a step back, "When?"

"Tomorrow," Evan continued, "They're going to attack tomorrow, and they've already brought in soldiers and weapons, and they're-" 

The first bullet whizzed past the human's head and right through one of Thrush's wings and he cried out in pain and surprise.

"You set me up!" Thrush started, but the sense of betrayal didn't have time to set in as the second bullet hit the human in the shoulder and his eyes went wide. This close, the security drone could feel the blood splatter his armour.

Thrush didn't think. He reacted. 

He dove forward and grabbed the human as he stumbled as if he were going to fall, flaring his wings and activating his jets at full blast. He couldn't tell where the gunfire was coming from but he knew he was being shot at and that was all that mattered. More bullets followed him as he tore through the canopy in the opposite direction, towards the mountains.

Below him now that he was beyond the treeline he could see vehicles moving in camouflage, and suddenly he wasn't being fired on with sniper rifles but with mounted artillery guns. 

Thrush was not built for combat. He was made of an extremely light alloy that let him stay airborne for long periods of time. He wasn't particularly strong or durable and he certainly wasn't outfitted with any weaponry. Between the weight of his cargo and the hole in his wing, he was already struggling to stay in the air, and the sudden volley of deadly gunfire was putting a fear in him he'd never felt before.

He angled hard, diving toward terrain a vehicle couldn't possibly navigate as another bullet clipped his side. Banking hard around the corner of a cliff face he passed an opening in the rock and doubled back, scrambling inside before his pursuers could catch up to line of sight. 

Thrush scrambled to the back of the cave, panting with alarm, human clutched still in his arms.

"Fuck-" Evan swore, "Let me go-"

Thrush did, immediately and too quickly, dropping him onto the floor of the cave. He swore again and rolled onto his good side, clutching at his shoulder where he was bleeding. 

Thrush opened his HUD and desperately threw together a warning message to Zephyr of everything he'd been told. He couldn't do much this far into no man's land, no connectivity network, but he could send it over an unencrypted short range radio frequency on force repeat and pray someone turned Copper's radio on in time. 

"We're so dead," the human groaned from the floor, "Fuck. Fuck!" 

"We're not dead!" Thrush hissed, "We're a hundred meters up inside of a sheer-faced cliff. We just have to wait them out."

"They're going to go through all my computers," Evan continued miserably, "They're going to see _everything._ I'm so fucked. I'm _so_ fucked."

Thrush hesitated, looking down at him as a pang of guilt went through his chassis. He knelt down and offered his rival a hand. "Let me take a look at your shoulder."

Evan looked up at him and for a moment Thrush thought he would tell him to piss off, but instead he took his hand and sat up with a wince. He slid his jacket off on one side so that he was in just a long sleeved shirt, soaked red with blood where the fabric was shredded. 

"That looks bad," Thrush commented, "I don't know a lot about human anatomy. What do we do?"

"Pressure," he answered, steadying his breathing and looking away from the injury, "It needs pressure. Here, can you- can you tear off my sleeve? I can use it as a bandage." 

Thrush nodded and carefully pulled the fabric apart, trying his best not to jostle its wearer. Evan held his arm out and Thrush didn't need to be instructed further, wrapping the injury while his companion squeezed his eyes shut and hissed.

"Is this life threatening?" Thrush asked.

"It can be," Evan groaned, pulling his jacket back on and zipping it up, "But I think going outside is more life threatening right now."

Thrush sat back, glancing down at the blood on his hands and then away again. "Thank you," he said, "You risked everything to help us."

"Yeah, well," Evan replied, staring into his lap, "You better be able to warn your people from here somehow, because I can't ever go home again."

"I did," Thrush told him, though he didn't mention he couldn't be sure they'd actually gotten it, "It's already done."

Evan's shoulders sank, releasing tension. "Ah. Good. Really good."

"Did… you leave anyone behind?" Thrush inquired.

Evan glanced over at him and grimaced. "No."

"No family?"

"No."

Thrush hesitated and his wings fluttered against his back anxiously. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," the human muttered, and then frowned, "Wait, didn't you get hit? Are you alright?"

"Huh?" Thrush glanced back at the hole in his wing and then at the tear in his side. "No, they're alright. They hurt, but they're not a problem."

"Wish I was that hardy," Evan groaned, "Well. You're Thrush, huh?"

Thrush nodded. "Cyberphobia, huh?"

Evan looked him up and down, like he was processing what he was seeing for the first time. "You look different than I thought you would."

Thrush tilted his head at him. "What did you think I'd look like?"

"I thought you'd have a face, I guess."

Thrush drew back, a little self consciously. "Well. Sorry."

"No, I don't mean-" Evan started, "I'm sorry. That's probably rude."

Thrush shrugged. "I thought you would be smaller."

Evan snorted startled laughter. "I guess that makes sense." He gave Thrush a weary, lopsided smile, "Well, I've ruined my life, I've gotten shot and I might bleed to death, but it's nice to finally meet you in the flesh. Or the… metal, or whatever."

"Aluminum, mostly," Thrush quipped.

"So how long do you think we need to wait here?" Evan asked. Thrush shook his head.

"I have a locator on," Thrush explained, "Someone will come when they get my distress message. We can't go back to Galena, obviously. I can only carry you so far."

Evan grimaced. "Thank you… for not leaving me behind." The human shivered hard and tightened his grip around his arms.

Thrush set his wings back and lashed his tail. "Are you alright?"

"I'm cold."

"How cold?" Thrush prompted, "Hypothermia cold?"

"Not yet, but I will be."

Thrush fidgeted, thinking, before he shifted forward and tugged the human toward him by his jacket. "Come here."

"What? Why?'

"Because I have an exothermic hydrogen combustion engine in my chest," Thrush answered, tugging again at his jacket. Evan bit his lip nervously and then nodded, letting the mech pull him into his lap. Thrush revved his engine as quietly as he could and let it run, his plating beginning to warm. 

Evan sighed in relief and pressed himself closer. Thrush thought he must be colder than he'd let on since he was leaning so heavily into such a compromising position.

"So," said Thrush, trying not to think about the man pressed against his chest, "What's your story then, huh?"

"Hm?"

"You know. Did you grow up in Ruby? How'd you get into computers? I'm making conversation."

"Oh," Evan hummed in thought, "No, I'm from Georgia, actually. Single mom worked a lot, so I spent most of my time at home online. She passed right after I graduated high school and I'd never really fit in around there so I just sort of- I know it's kind of crazy, but I decided to just get as far away as I could. Ended up here."

"I'm sorry," said Thrush.

"It's fine. Long time ago now."

Thrush felt the man shiver again and he shifted, wrapping his arms around his back to trap in as much heat as he could. "Still."

"What about you?" Evan asked, "Were you- uh, made around here?"

"I was assembled in a factory in Taiwan," Thrush scoffed, "But I did come online here. Further south, anyway. An older couple with a family-run bison farm bought me to keep an eye out for rustlers and thieves, animal attacks, things like that."

"Did they treat you badly?"

"Not really," Thrush shrugged, "Recharged in the house. Gave me a proper name. Not nearly as bad as the other horror stories I've heard."

"Lucky, then."

"Luckier than most, anyway," Thrush sighed, "I left when the Aristocracy claimed the territory north of the Yukon."

"Why didn't you leave for Proxima when it went up?" Evan inquired.

"I don't want to move to Proxima. I like the Earth. There's no trees on a space station, no animals, no weather, no open skies. It's great there's a proper Mechanoid capital, but I don't want to _live_ there." 

"Huh," Evan wondered aloud.

"Well. Who knows what I'm going to do _now,_ " Thrush mumbled, "If they take Galena…"

"I guess we're both homeless, then," Evan muttered.

They were both pensive for a moment.

"How's your shoulder?" Thrush asked, when the silence became awkward.

"Better, I guess. Or at least, it's numb enough now that I can ignore it."

"That's good! That's good." Evan looked up at him and Thrush tilted his head down to look down at the man. "What?"

"You really see out of that?" Evan asked, reaching his good arm up toward his optic. 

Thrush blinked. "Yes."

"What's it like not having a mouth?" Evan asked, touching the underside of his helm and tilting it up to see better.

"Uh," said Thrush nervously, "I don't know. What's it like having a mouth?"

"Inconvenient," Evan admitted, and the point of contact where his palm touched Thrush's plating was consuming an inordinate amount of processing power suddenly, "Eating is a hassle and breathing is the worst. I can't even imagine how much easier life would be if I didn't have to breathe."

"Well," Thrush posited, flipping his antennae up and down, "I can't imagine how much easier life would be with the ability to heal." He pointed at his injured wing. "I'm going to have to patch this. It's not going to fix itself like yours will."

"Fair enough," Evan conceded. His palm had moved up to the side of Thrush's helm now and hadn't left. He only just seemed to notice this, pulling his hand back quickly. "Sorry."

"No, no, it's fine," Thrush said quickly, "It feels nice."

Thrush wasn't certain if he was imagining the way Evan's face flushed, but he returned his hand to where it had been, smoothing it over the armour of his helm. Thrush shut his optic as the human touched his audial at the base of his antennae. 

"You've been the closest thing I've had to a friend for a long time," Evan muttered, sounding like an admission, "I know that's weird."

Thrush tilted his head into the contact greedily. "It's not weird."

"No?" His hand brushed back down to the side of Thrush's helm. 

"I look forward to our games every morning. I… appreciate them. You." 

A beat of silence passed, and Thrush onlined his optic. The expression Evan was looking at him with was unreadable but earnest, desperate for something the mech yearned to give him. His hand was still on the side of Thrush's helm.

"You should come to Galena with me," Thrush said, voice barely above a whisper, "If it's still around after this."

Evan surged upward like a man possessed, pressing his lips against the metal beneath his optic. Thrush's body responded before his brain did, tightening his arms to pull his soft organic form flush against his chest.

Evan yanked back suddenly, as if burned. "I- I'm sorry, I didn’t-"

"No, please, come back," Thrush pleaded. He'd never been kissed before, especially not by a human, but the warmth of it was intoxicating, addictive after just one and he was frantic for that not to be the end of it. 

Permission seemed to wash away whatever was holding the human back, and he grabbed both sides of Thrush's helm, good and bad arm and yanked him down to meet his face, kissing anywhere he could reach. Thrush had never before longed for a mouth but he felt woefully unequipped to reciprocate and ached to kiss him back. He settled for pawing at his back where his hands lay instead, one sliding up under the hem of his jacket. 

"Jesus fuck," Evan hissed, "I don't know what's wrong with me. God, I shouldn't- _we_ shouldn't-"

"I don't care," Thrush interrupted, moving one hand to cup the man's ass and he groaned appreciatively. "I want to touch you." 

"Fuck," the human wheezed, shifting the angle his body was held against Thrush's so that he could feel his cock hardening against his belly, even as he moved to mouth along the cabling of his neck, "Jesus. Can you- do you-"

"Do I what?" Thrush demanded, shivering beneath the attention.

"Nn-" Evan whined as the mech slipped a hand between his legs to palm his erection through his pants, "Fuck!"

"Do I _fuck?_ "

"No!" Evan snapped, and then paused, "Yes, actually, fuck. Do you- is there anything-" He glanced down between them at Thrush's lap.

The mech tilted his dimmed optic toward the human cheekily. "You don't _know!_ " he laughed giddily, "Oh my god." 

"Why would I know that!"

Wishing he could give his partner a devious grin, Thrush squeezed his cock to make him squirm and tugged at his ass to pull their groins together in his lap, looking up at him through his optical housing. "What do you _think_ I'm hiding down there, huh?" he prompted, voice growing huskier by the second.

Evan writhed beneath his touch, needily rutting his hips into Thrush's palm, desperate for friction. "It's hot as hell. You've got _something_ in there." 

"What are you imagining?" Thrush continued, "A dick? A bunch of tentacles? A screwdriver?"

"If you don't have something to fuck me with, so help me God, Thrush-" 

Thrush let his modesty snap back and his cock pressurize, thick and grey-black with glowing yellow biolights up the sides. Evan's eyes widened like dinner plates, blown out pupils glittering with hunger.

"Is that satisfactory?" Thrush purred, revving his engine. 

"One last question," Evan said without looking up, licking his lips.

"Yeah?"

Evan reached down with his good arm and ran a finger through the biofluid beading from the slit in the head of Thrush's cock, holding it up to his lips. "Is this gonna kill me if I swallow it?"

"N-non-toxic," Thrush stammered. Evan licked the tip of his finger into his mouth, sucking off the biofluid without breaking eye contact. "Holy shit."

"Thank God," Evan said, and then shoved himself back and ducked his head to take the head of Thrush's cock in his mouth without any further fanfare. The security drone gasped and groaned, kicking his legs against the floor as the human moaned around his cock like he'd never tasted anything better. He ran his tongue through the slit and bobbed his head down, dragging his lips over the ridged pleating of Thrush's dick, hollowing his cheeks as he did.

"Nn- fuck, _Evan,_ " Thrush groaned, pulling his hands up away from the human's back and folding them into fists, anxious about going overboard with his greater mechanical strength. "I'm- it's- that's good, that's really good-"

Evan continued, taking him deeper in his mouth and pawing at the base of his cock with his good hand. As he dipped his head down, swallowing around the head, he shifted his hand, thumb slipping down into the folds of Thrush's cunt, something that seemed to confuse him. He pulled his hand full away from the base of the mecha's dick to poke at this new discovery before he pulled his head back to squint his eyes at it.

"What the hell?" Evan said, flustered as he regarded the dripping opening.

"What?" Thrush gasped, panting through wide open vents, "You think someone built a security drone that could fuck? If you got to build your own setup would you _not_ get both?"

"Jealous," Evan murmured between breaths, sliding two fingers into the slick wet heat curiously, eliciting a whine from his mechanical partner, "Fuck, that's so hot."

Thrush leaned back against the cave wall, spreading his legs open, tugging at the human's jacket. "Come on. I'm self lubricating."

Evan bit his lip and yanked his pants down around his knees, crawling up and into his chest, Thrush's legs wrapping around his back and pulling him closer. The mechanoid eyed his masted cock, twitching needily. He couldn't help himself any longer and took his erection in hand, begging for attention as it was, lining it up with Thrush's soaking wet entrance. 

"Holy fuck," he breathed as he sank in, grabbing at Thrush's chest plating as he moaned long and low and needy. 

"Evan," Thrush whined, optic flickering. 

Evan groaned as he pulled back and thrust in with off time movements, closing in on a rhythm as he continued. "Jesus fuck," he hissed, "This is so much better than I could have hoped."

"Have you thought about it?" Thrush purred through gasps, "Fucking a toaster?" 

"What about you?" Evan growled, leaning up toward his audial, "Have you been fantasizing about fleshbags?"

"Maybe I have," Thrush challenged, and then threw his helm back with a wail as Evan hilted, hitting the sensitive sensory nodes at the end of his channel, sending waves of pleasure through his circuits. 

"You're so fucking hot, Thrush," Evan panted, "Christ. I knew- I knew I was going to like you when we finally met, but I didn't- I didn't think you'd be so fucking hot-" 

"I think you have a fetish."

"Are you complaining?!"

"Fuck no," Thrush growled, pawing at his back beneath his jacket and thrusting back to match his pace, falling apart under the onslaught of stimulation he was experiencing, new and strange but altogether _intoxicating_. 

The banter devolved into wordless stream of consciousness, swears and gasps and whines, only for Thrush to come with a wail, burying his helm against Evan’s neck and tightening his arms to yank him flush against his body as his servos seized and his climax rolled over him. The noises he was making only spurned Evan on, fucking him through his orgasm with far more frantic, paceless thrusts until he came with a snarl in Thrush's overstimulated cunt, shoving his forehead against the mecha's chest with a few final snaps of his hips before he stopped, going boneless and collapsing against his partner, gasping for cool air.

Thrush let his head rest against the wall, optics offline and hands resting against the human's back, internal fans screaming. He could hear the metal in his core pinging as it began to cool, feeling the organic thrum of the human's heartbeat reverberate through his frame, the gentle movement of his chest against his own.

"Wow," said Evan, eventually, barely a breath.

"Wow," Thrush repeated. The human pushed himself up, wincing as he seemed to suddenly remember his injury, and Thrush helped set him back up as he pulled out, seemingly mesmerized by the way his fluids were leaking out of the mechanoid, dribbling down onto the rock floor below.

"Hang on," Thrush said, sitting up and digging around in a subspace compartment in his arm and pulling out a cleaning cloth, "Here."

He jolted when the human took the rag and wiped him down before himself, which he hadn't expected. Self consciously, he snapped his array shut while the human tugged his pants back on.

"Are you alright?" Thrush prompted, "I didn't- I didn't hurt you, did I?"

Evan looked up, almost surprised. "No. Not more than I already was."

Thrush felt anxiety crawling up his spinal strut and finally overwhelming the fading arousal as he looked back at Evan. He couldn't help but think he was beautiful, and how suddenly he wasn't sure what all this was or meant or if he was suddenly going to regret this and how badly he wanted him _not_ to regret it-

"That's not what I was expecting to do today," Evan said awkwardly, breaking the uncomfortable silence, "But, uh- I could have done worse things."

"Well," Thrush added, "You did get shot."

Evan was silent for a moment, eyebrows furrowed. "Did you mean that- about coming to Galena with you?" 

"Please," Thrush responded, wings shifting upward.

Evan watched him, deep in thought and then shivered again and Thrush opened his arms in silent invitation. Evan seemed to make his decision and crawled back into his lap with a sigh.

"I can't go home," Evan murmured, "But I don't think I want to, anyway." 

Thrush felt electricity pulse through his circuitry, overwhelmingly pleased. He hadn't even realized how _much_ he'd wanted him to say that. "Good. Good."

"You know this is a bad idea, right?" Evan prompted, even as he leaned in against Thrush's shoulder, "Like, you know this is going to cause trouble, right?"

"More for you than me," Thrush said defiantly, "I'm not afraid of trouble." His antennae swiveled upward as a proximity alarm went off, skimming through short wave frequencies until he settled on the right one.

"Thrush!" Zephyr's voice called over the radio static, "can you hear me?"

"I'm here!" Thrush said out loud, sitting up straight.

"What?" Evan prompted.

"Oh, thank God," Zephyr gasped, "I was so worried they shot you down!" 

"Nobody's shot me down yet, huh?" Thrush replied, "I've got a human with me." 

"Oh, shit, is help coming?"

"What do you have a human with you for? Are we taking prisoners now?"

"No, no- he came to warn me about the raid, his people shot him," Thrush explained, "I've got a hole in my wing. I can't carry him far. What happened to Galena?"

"We got your message," she responded, "Commander Seax is deploying troops from St. Michael, but we started rapid evacuation anyway."

Thrush sighed in relief. "So what's the plan for us?"

"Well, I was _hoping_ we could just _fly_ to Selawik, but I thought you might be damaged, so I have a transport waiting by the border. We just have to get your human that far."

"That's exactly what I wanted to hear, Zeph." Thrush cut his comm and looked down at his frustrated and curious companion. "They're evacuating and falling back to Selawik for now. We've got a car waiting, if you can stand flying a little further."

"It's that or stay in the cave," Evan grumbled, "There's no WiFi here. That's not gonna work for me."

"What, you talk to people other than me on the internet?" Thrush teased and the human rolled his eyes. "I'm kidding. She's like twenty miles out, though, it'll be a few minutes before she gets here."

"Can't wait for some fucking morphine," he mumbled, and then set his jaw, looking back up at the mech. "Hey. Come here."

"I'm already here?"

Evan tugged his helm down to plant a kiss below his optic, different than he had earlier. Soft, unrushed, he waited a moment and then pulled back, expression determined. 

"Yeah," he said, "That's not getting old."

"No," Thrush said, fluttering his wings against his back, tail thumping happily, "It isn't."

Evan gave him a lopsided smile and then settled back in against his shoulder, resting against the only heat source for miles. Thrush felt giddy, addicted already to the feel of his soft body against his own, and let himself enjoy it until he heard the telltale sound of an approaching engine outside.

He looked up as Zephyr landed on her feet at the cave entrance and folded her wings down. "Wow, aren't you a sight for sore optics," she whistled, crossing her arms, "I expected you to look like you'd gotten your ass kicked. You just got a little hole in you."

"Little?!" Thrush demanded, gesturing at the baseball sized chunk missing from the center of one wing, "I'd like to see you counterbalance this!"

"I've flown on worse," she scoffed, and then tilted her optic down at the human, "You two got close."

"He's endothermic!" Thrush snapped, "You want me to let him freeze?" 

Zephyr eyed him, unconvinced. "Right." 

"I'm just tired," Evan interrupted, "It's kind of been a long day for me." 

"No kidding," Zephyr mumbled, and then pulled a roll of duct tape from an arm compartment and tossed it to Thrush, "Patch yourself up and we can go." 

Thrush fumbled with his wing, shifting it's angle as he tried to get the tape wrapped and layered evenly. By the entrance Zephyr navigated her new passenger into the most agreeable position for carrying that she could, and then waited by the edge until Thrush joined her. 

He fell further behind than he was proud of, a miserable whistling sound in his injured wing and the miserable wet feeling of a foreign substance just behind his panel between his legs keeping him distracted the entire flight. He was desperately glad when they landed on the other side of the Yukon where the truck Zephyr had mentioned was parked. A familiar human face leaned out the driver's seat when he landed, wobbling, beside it.

"Zeph was worried you were scrap," Denny told him, "Good to see you up and about." 

"Just glad that evacuation started in time." Thrush shook his head. "It started in time, right?"

Denny nodded. "No worries. We've all done the drills. It's fine."

"Good," he sighed, and then glanced at where Evan was already curled in the passenger seat through the back window, "You're a better gauge of this- is he okay?"

"Hm?" Denny looked over at his passenger and back, "I'm not a doctor, but we don't got any organs in there if that's what you mean."

"I know that!" Thrush hissed, embarrassed, "I just mean- do you think he'll be okay?" 

"He doesn't look like he's dying to me," Denny shrugged, "But I can't really say."

Thrush fidgeted, lashing his tail anxiously before Zephyr whistled at him, sitting in the back of the pickup. 

"Come on, let's get out of here," she insisted, and Thrush clambered up into the truck before it rumbled to life and headed out for Selawik.

* * *

Thrush was relieved when he was finally done talking to the mayor and to the military types that had insisted on speaking to him when he arrived. Commander Seax had apparently diverted her unit to Galena herself, stuck in a standoff with the Americans. At least they weren't actually _fighting._ Thrush hoped against hope this conflict would fizzle out without incident, but it was out of his hands now. He was just an off-duty security guard.

It was daylight when he was finally able to slip away and visit the single medical center that the town boasted where his human had been shuffled off to without him. He wasn't surprised to find Evan was the only human they were treating. 

"Visitor," Thrush chirped, peeking inside the open door of the only occupied room, "Are you awake?"

"Oh, hey!" Evan said as he brightened, looking away from his phone, "You came!" 

"Of course I came," Thrush scoffed, and slipped inside, shutting the door behind him, "Sorry it took me all day."

"I figured it was important," Evan shrugged, and Thrush could see through the white t-shirt he'd been changed into that he'd been given a proper bandaging, "I spent most of it unconscious anyway, oxycodone will really do that."

"Wouldn't know," Thrush admitted, and then hesitantly sat down on the edge of the bed, "Are you feeling better?"

"Much. Again, the oxycodone."

Thrush's tail flicked anxiously against the floor. "So, uh, we sure- we sure went at it, uh- I hope you aren't having second thoughts-" he suddenly jolted, "Not that it's not alright if you are!"

"Hey," said Evan, reaching toward him. Thrush leaned forward and the human tugged him forward by the helm to kiss him beneath the optic. The tension went out of his shoulders.

"Alright," he sighed, relief spreading through his circuits, wings sinking.

"It's starting to look like Galena is still gonna be there when things settle down after all," Evan said.

"I could use a hand updating the network security," Thrush said, crossing his arms and laying his head down against the human's abdomen, "Since it's apparently so easy to break through." 

Evan smirked. "The tin can comes to the meatbag begging for computer help, huh?"

"The meatbag one-upped me," Thrush huffed, "I'm not too proud to admit it." 

"Yeah, well, I'd love to take the piss out of my old boss," Evan grumbled, "If I'm going rogue I may as well go big or go home." He paused. "And I sure can't go home." 

"Speaking of WiFi," Thrush added, narrowing his optic, "Now that I can get online again I did some _research._ When you were like 'oh, Thrush, you better have something to fuck me with' what were you _planning_ on _doing?_ "

Evan's face flushed red. "Christ."

"Don't take advantage of my organic ignorance," he pointed accusingly.

"I wasn't _thinking_ , I was _horny_ ," Evan hissed, "I don't know what I was planning! I wasn't planning past the next two seconds!" 

"Heh."

"But," Evan said, putting a hand against Thrush's helm to draw him back up and lean forward over him, "You _are_ going to fuck me."

"What, right now?" Thrush challenged cheekily, daring to let a hand drift to hook his thumb under the human's waistband suggestively.

"Maybe," Evan smirked, hands wandering away from his helm down his neck, fingers carefully exploring plating.

"You _really_ want to get caught," Thrush commented, but pushed the human's shirt up to reveal his abdomen anyway, palms running over his skin with curious intent. "You're so _soft._ "

"That's not a compliment, you know."

"You feel so different," Thrush continued, touch migrating upward. Evan made a little noise as his fingers brushed over his nipples and the mech paused curiously, returning to the spot for further investigation. Experimentally, he pinched one between his fingers and was rewarded with another soft noise from deep in the human's throat. "Does that feel good?"

"Mmhmm," he mumbled, "Sensitive though."

Thrush nodded and moved on, not wanting to overwork the flesh. "What else feels good?"

"Uh- everything down there, obviously," Evan answered somewhat awkwardly, "But being touched anywhere feels nice. What about you?"

"The kissing is nice," Thrush told him, nuzzling his helm against his neck, "That's definitely new. Anywhere where my armor sort of separates, like joints, underneath is really sensitive."

Evan didn't hesitate to move his hands underneath Thrush's arms where the metal separate and revealed inner mechanisms, pinching a bundle of wires between his fingers. Thrush whined, caught off guard, and the human smirked deviously, working his way in deeper to tweak at hidden pistons and servos. When he brushed past the actual ball joint Thrush _whimpered,_ steadying himself for a moment with a hand against the bed. 

"Fascinating," Evan murmured, and then pulled his hands away to run them up the length of Thrush's wings. "What about these?"

"They take a lot of abuse," Thrush explained, "It feels good, but I guess it's not necessarily sensitive."

"Hm," Evan hummed in thought, and then pulled him down to rest against his chest. "Wow. You don't weigh anything."

"I'm made of aluminum. I'm supposed to be light."

"I could definitely carry you," Evan mused, and then shifted to rub the base of Thrush's wings, the joints there sore and overworked. The security drone moaned shamelessly and melted against the human beneath him, rolling his back up into the attention. "Wow. I definitely found a winner." 

"Mmhmm," the mech mumbled with a sigh, tail flicking gently.

Evan seemed content to let the mech rumble his engine against his chest for a while and enjoy the attention before he shifted his focus and trailed away to sink his fingers into his hip joints, playing with the exposed machinery within. Thrush whined, wings flapping and hands fisting. 

"So you built your equipment yourself, huh?" Evan purred as he continued to pinch and tweak hardware.

"Nn-" Thrush groaned, "No, it's- it's kind of a common upgrade-"

"Oh yeah?" 

"It's got the- the software to- sensation, and everything-" he stammered.

" _Fascinating,_ " the human repeated, "Does everyone have a full set down there?"

"N-no," Thrush gasped as Evan slid one hand away from his hip and over his modesty panel, "You can get whatever you want- it's just sort of- up to you." 

"Do you have a favourite?" 

Thrush groaned, trying to keep his array closed, still deeply aware of where they were right now, what a bad idea this was. "I like to change it up."

"Maybe you should change it up, then," Evan purred, "Give me a turn."

"You _do_ want to get caught," Thrush hissed, "You're getting off on this."

"Mmmmaybe," Evan hummed, palming at his panel in _such_ a way that he couldn't keep it closed any longer and it snapped open, releasing a flood of lubricants onto the sheets. The human didn't hesitate to push two fingers inside him, slick channel opening up easily for him as the mech gasped and trembled.

"You're being really handsy for someone who wants _me_ to top," Thrush panted, "Do you want me to fuck you or not?"

"Can you blame me for getting distracted?" Evan smirked, scissoring his fingers apart, "You're really responsive."

"Alright, that's it-" lashing his tail, Thrush grabbed the man's wrists and pinned them down above his head, shifting them into one hand. Evan's eyes glittered and he tugged against the mecha's grip, uselessly.

"Pretty strong for someone that weighs twenty pounds," the human grinned.

"Seventy-five," Thrush corrected, sliding his hands down Evan's pants to rub his cock straining against the fabric. The man groaned and shifted into his touch, hips jerking upward. "Pick your legs up." He let go of the human's wrists and grabbed his waistband, yanking them down as he maneuvered his legs up and out of his pants, tossing them aside to the floor.

Hands free the man grabbed for his partner's helm again, mouthing enthusiastically at the metal and clinging to his neck. Thrush stroked his cock idly, enjoying the soft noises he was starting to make. 

"Hang on," he said, breaking away to lean back while Evan whined in frustration. 

"What are you- oh, gross," the man made a face as Thrush split open his abdomen, folded out a tank cover and swiveled it open.

"What?" Thrush asked, narrowing his optic. He pulled the tank out and squeezed it into his hand before he shoved it back in and snapped it shut, "Where did you think it came from?"

"God, I don't know, I didn't think about it at all," Evan said, staring at his abdomen. The mech shrugged as he slicked down his cock with his own lubricant. "You just _refill_ it?"

"Well I don't _make_ it."

"Fascinating," the human mumbled, "Is it weird that I want to touch it?"

Thrush squinted, tilting his head to the side. "I have no idea. Maybe?"

"Later."

Thrush leaned back down, letting his lubed up hand falling between Evan's legs, teasing at his entrance as he nudged his head back against the human's face. "Tell me if I'm doing anything wrong, okay?'

"Mmhmm," Evan agreed, wrapping his arms around his neck, wiggling his hips as Thrush pushed inside him. He worked his way in slowly, crooking his finger and moving carefully in and out before the human's legs started to relax. "You can put in another."

Thrush did, but nervously drew back when Evan hissed sharply, and then grabbed his wrist and pulled it back.

"It's fine, it just takes a second," the man said insistently. Thrush returned, a little more hesitantly, until he was pulling needy little vocalizations from him again, the human pushing back against his hand greedily.

"It feels good?" the security drone prompted.

"Mmhmm," Evan sighed, knees inching upward, "Good."

"Enough?" he asked, "Or more?" 

"Enough," the human confirmed, hooking his legs around the other's back, "Come on. Fuck me, toaster."

"Heh," Thrush snorted, pulling his hand away to wrap it around his dick, glancing down as he lined himself up. "Fuck," he hissed, pushing in, "You're so _tight._ "

Evan groaned wordlessly, tightening his legs grip and rolling his head back. Thrush moved slowly in abortive little thrusts that sunk deeper with each one as his partner's voice rose and he buried his face in his neck.

"Fuck, Thrush," he trembled, "You're good, so good, fuck."

"There's more where that came from," the security drone growled, "If you stick around you can have my dick whenever you want."

"Then I'm going to keep you busy," Evan promised, mouth beside his audial. 

Thrush snarled as he snapped forward and the human wailed, tightening his arms. The mech rocked their hips together, hands on his waist and pulling him back against him to hilt as he buried his cock inside of him, tail lashing behind him and wrapping around one of Evan's calves. The human clawed at his back desperately as he was plunged into again and again, mewling and begging. 

"Say my name," Thrush growled, "I want to hear you beg me."

"Fuck, that's hot," Evan gasped, "Thrush, Thrush, _Thrush,_ please, god, don't stop-"

"What if I did, huh? Left you desperate and unfinished like this?"

"Don't you _dare!_ "

"I think I'd like to see you squirm," he purred, "Maybe finish yourself off."

" _Don't!_ " Evan snapped, "Fuck, Thrush, I'm close, do _not_ stop!"

"Oh _are_ you? Are you gonna cum just from my dick?" Thrush crooned, "Without me even touching you?"

"Just don't _stop,_ " he begged.

"I wouldn't _dream_ of it," Thrush assured him, and then grabbed the human by the hips and canted them upward, laying into him as he keened and clutched his neck as if for his life, whining desperately. 

His body tensed, trembling with the pressure before he burst, arching his back as he sobbed, cock spraying a ribbon of cum against his stomach. Thrush groaned at the way the muscles within the human rippled against his cock with his release, tensing and tightening. The mech fucked him through it, focusing on his own building climax before he followed him over, snarling and filling his ass with hot biofluid.

"Jesus christ," Evan panted, legs sinking back down to the mattress slowly. 

Thrush sunk down on top of him, vents flared and fans running. "God. You're so warm."

"I think _you_ have a fetish," Evan wheezed.

"I can live with that."

Evan dropped a hand languidly against his back, tracing the edge of his plating. "I still want to touch it."

"God, you can touch it _later._ "

"Thrush," Zephyr's voice said over his comm line, sounding annoyed.

"What's up?" he asked, resting his head against the human's chest and feeling the beat of his heart against his armour.

"Are you two done yet? Riot's been on shift for _hours_ and he needs a break."

"Oh," said Thrush, ice creeping up his spinal strut, "Oh, god."

"Nope, I don't want to talk about it, I'm not mentioning it, please just come out when you don’t smell like organic fluids."

The noise he made was indescribable, high pitched and horrified, burying his optic in the sheets in mortification.

"What?" Evan blinked, confused, "What did I miss?"

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Hammer Alert](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29455323) by [kireiflora](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kireiflora/pseuds/kireiflora)




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